Survivorultimately always comes down to the votes, but even more so for Chanelle Howell.
Was Chanelle’s vote against Mike her ultimate undoing?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, what happened.
Chanelle Howell on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
Why are you here talking to me?
CHANELLE HOWELL: Oh my goodness.
I feel like I was so well positioned in the early game, very much felt comfortable.
Chanelle Howell on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
Even going to Ship Wheel Island.
Wait, that’s only half of it.
That’s only half of the conversation."
Chanelle Howell and Omar Zaheer on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
And so I know everyone’s so confused, like, “Why does she risk her vote?”
So why did you risk your vote?
But if it helps both of us, both of us will take it."
So he’s not gonna take it.
I’m gonna take it."
And I knew that I was the most safe.
And I see a lot of people saying I didn’t protect my alliance.
I didn’t really have an alliance.
So in any situation, someone from my alliance was always gonna go home.
And so it wasn’t like, oh, you didn’t protect your alliance.
There was no alliance to protect!
Someone was always gonna go home.
And I was as safe as I was ever gonna be in that game, in that moment.
And then I decided to risk my vote.
‘Cause I think he would’ve given it to me, honestly.
So that’s kind of why that was a catalyst to the downfall.
So your tribe said to you, “Don’t risk it.”
But you get there and you talk to Omar…
My tribeneversaid don’t risk it.
We had no idea that Ship Wheel Island was a recurring thing.
I think I read somewhere that Daniel and I had a conversation.
So we had no idea that it would be a recurring thing.
So no one ever said, “Don’t risk it.”
No one said anything to me.
This is completely brand new to us.
I know as a viewer, you’ve seen this on 41.
We’ve not seen anything.
We had no idea.
Like, is it a different thing?
Is it the same thing?
We had no idea.
Is that true, and what do you make of his assessment?
I personally don’t feel like I hung him out to dry.
Or perhaps I did, but for me, the betrayal in Daniel’s eyes isn’t really betrayal.
I kind of took a backseat at Tribal Council because I didn’t have a vote.
Why would I do that?
It wouldn’t be smart.
And also, you opened the negotiation up by losing!
it didn’t make any sense to me.
But if that was Daniel’s perception of betrayal, then that was the only thing.
So he knew everything.
I told him everything.
I said, “I don’t have a vote.
I think this is how we should play it since I don’t have one.
Let me know if you agree.”
And we went from there, so there was no betrayal.
I don’t know where to go.
Let me just push the blame on someone else."
Which I can’t fault him for because perhaps I would have done the same thing.
I can’t fault him for that because it’s a hard game.
You’re in the moment, you don’t know what to do, but there was no betrayal.
Let’s talk about throwing a vote at the wall.
Is that vote against Mike at the Tribal Council where Daniel went home ultimately what did you in?
I underestimated how emotional Hai was and how emotional Mike was and they wereveryemotional.
I might work with you in a vote or two."
I don’t think I could recover from that.
“Why did you do that?”
I didn’t do this and I could have done this."
And the fans would be like, “Why didn’t you do that?
You had that strategic move in your back pocket!”
Mike and I both lost our vote.
He didn’t tell me that he lost his vote.
I didn’t tell him I lost my vote.
Mike voted for me in case of Daniel’s shot in the dark.
I voted for him in case of Daniel’s shot in the dark.
We made the exact same moves.
And, for some reason and I think this is a bigger theme I am vilified for it.
And I risk my vote at the ship wheel for the exact same reasons.
And I’m like, “We made the exact same move!”
Did you ever point that out to him when he was bringing this up to you?
and I go, “Mike, you voted forme.We’re good.
I’m not taking it personally.
I did it for survival.
You did it for survival.”
Just like your vote for me wasn’t personal.
It was for the exact same reason."
He did take it personally.
How are you and Mike now outside the game now that it’s over?
What was going through your mind there?
Because many events happened that day that I’m like, “How did I miss this?”
And I’m not an idiot.
I knew I was on the outs.
I was very ostracized at the merge on a strategic level, but also on a social level.
I was ostracized in a way that hurt because I knew that I was on the outs.
And the thing that the peopledon’tsee is that Vati was that girl when we got to merge.
Ika was like, “We will target Taku.
Let’s work with Vati.”
Taku was like, “We will target Ika.
Let’s work with Vati.”
Vati was that girl.
And so in my opinion, it makes sense that we would essentially pick a side.
Let’s create a whole new dynamic."
Is there anything you regret about your endgame there?
It’s hard, right?
‘Cause I could have scrambled.
I could have done more.
But honestly, I think the way that I played was the smartest.
Could I have pulled a majority?
I don’t think so.
Because I tried working with Romeo, he wasn’t giving me the truth.
I tried talking to Maryanne, but she was not giving me too much.
And so I think what I did was honestly the smartest move that I could have done.
I was a challenge beast out there!
And that was not shown on the screen.
But your girl was killing it.
They didn’t show all that, but your girl was carrying the team on her back.
Finally, what’s it like being the mayor of Ponderosa?
I always say that every second on that island was a gift.
Every second at Ponderosa was a gift.
And so it was beautiful.
